Prior to Israel's capture of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Six Day War in 1967
these areas, originally destined for a Palestinian state, were
under Egyptian (in the case of
the Gaza Strip) and Jordanian
(in the case of the West Bank) occupation. Palestinians crossing
the border for a variety of reasons, primarily efforts to return to
their homes, to harvest food or visit relatives, in a small
percentage of cases for organized attacks. This resulted in
confrontations with Israeli
military and border guards, from 1949 to 1956 about 500
Israelis died, half of them "combatants," and between 2,700 and
5,000 Palestinians.[1]
Simultaneously, a variety of Israeli military attacks targeted Palestinian fedayeen, Egyptian and
Jordanian military forces in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Jordan,
in response to the Arab offensive. A number of fedayeen attacks
deliberately targeted civilians, causing many deaths and serious
injuries and disrupting daily life. Israel's Ministry of Foreign
Affairs[2]
describes the following events as terrorist attacks, although most
media reports of that time refer to them as 'fedayeen' attacks.

Contents

Border conflict,
1949-1956

Jan 1, 1952 - Seven armed gunmen attacked and killed a nineteen
year-old girl in her home, in the neighborhood of Beit Yisrael, in Jerusalem. The Mixed
Armistice on investigation found that the case against Jordanian
infiltrators could not be substantiated.

December 31 1951/ Jan 1 1952 a rape murder occurred. The MAC investigating officer,
Major Loreaux, reported that the body of the girl had been found
hidden in a cave about a mile from the Jordan border, the girl had
been raped and murdered her face had been mutilated. Nothing,
however, had been found to indicate that Jordanians had committed
this atrocity. The case had not been discussed by the Commission.
Major Loreaux expressed the opinion that the Israeli police would
have a better chance of finding the killer than the Arabs
would.[3]

The incident was used as pretext for the Israeli “reprisal raid”
at Beit Jalla on January 6, 1952

Apr 14, 1953 - Infiltrators tried for the first time to
infiltrate Israel by sea, but were unsuccessful. One of the boats
was intercepted and the other boat escaped.

June 7, 1953 - A youngster was killed and three others were
wounded, in a shooting attacks on residential areas in southern
Jerusalem.

June 9, 1953 - Gunmen attacked a farming community near Lod, and killed one of the residents.
The gunmen threw hand grenades and sprayed gunfire in all
directions. On the same night, another group of terrorists attacked
a house in the town of Hadera.
This occurred a day after Israel and Jordan signed an agreement,
with UN mediation, in which Jordan undertook to prevent terrorists
from crossing into Israel from Jordanian territory.

June 10, 1953 - Attackers infiltrating from Jordan destroyed a
house in the farming village of Mishmar Ayalon.

June 11, 1953 - Gunmen attacked a young couple in their home in
Kfar Hess, and shot them
to death.

Sept 2, 1953 - Attackers infiltrated from Jordan, and reached
the neighborhood of Katamon,
in the heart of Jerusalem. They threw hand grenades in all directions. No one
was hurt.

Mar 17, 1954 - Scorpion Pass
Massacre - Bandits ambushed a bus traveling from Eilat to Tel Aviv, and opened fire at short range when
the bus reached the area of Ma'ale Akrabim (Scorpion Pass) in the
northern Negev. In the initial
ambush, the bandits killed the driver and wounded most of the
passengers. The bandits then boarded the bus, and shot some of the
passenger, one by one. Eleven passengers were murdered. Survivors
recounted how the murderers spat on the bodies and abused them. The
massacre was apparently reprisal raid conducted by members of a
Bedouin tribe expelled from the al-Auja region of the Sinai three
and a half years earlier.[4][5][6]

Mar 24, 1955 - Gunmen threw hand grenades and opened fire on a
crowd at a wedding in the farming community of Patish, in the Negev. A young woman was killed,
and eighteen people were wounded in the attack.

Apr 7, 1956 - A resident of Ashkelon was killed in her home, when the
attackers threw three hand grenades into her house. Two members of
kibbutz Givat Haim
were killed, when terrorists opened fire on their car, on the road
from Plugot Junction to Mishmar HaNegev. There were further
hand grenade and shooting attacks on homes and cars, in areas such
as Nitzanim and Ketziot.
One person was killed and three others wounded.

Apr 11, 1956 - Gunmen opened fire on a synagogue full of
children and teenagers, in the farming community of Shafrir. Three children and a
youth worker were killed on the spot, and five were wounded,
including three seriously.

May 26, 1958 - Four Israeli police officers were killed in a
Jordanian attack on Mount Scopus, in Jerusalem.

At 1654 Local time Lieutenant-Colonel Flint of the Mixed Armistice Commission
was killed apparently by a single sniper round while trying to
evacuate the dead and wounded Israelis from an Israeli police
patrol. The Israeli police patrol was on a disputed route past the
al-Issawiya village
in the Jordanian controlled area of Mount Scopus.[7]

Nov 17, 1958 - Syrian
terrorists killed the wife of the British air attaché in
Israel, who was staying at the guesthouse of the Italian Convent on
the Mt. of the Beatitudes.

Dec 3, 1958- A shepherd was killed at Kibbutz Gonen. In the artillery attack that followed, 31
civilians were wounded.